Day 5: Dutch Colonialism and Multiculturalism

Today we learned about the Dutch colonies and the current policies and issues with multiculturalism. The independent Netherlands initially had some problems because while many of the people immigrating into the new country had business connections that brought an economic boost, the Netherlands still needed a steady source of income in the global market. To do this, they needed access to the spice market. This wasn't exactly easy since the global spice market was monopolized by Spain for all intensive purposes, and Spain wasn't on good terms with the Netherlands at the moment. There was only one solution: find a new source of spices.

The Dutch had to find a different route. The original plan was to sail north instead of south to reach Asia. Unfortunately, that didn't really work.

Willem Barentz fighting a polar bear.

A new plan was thus made to follow the Spanish route until South Africa, and then sailing directly east and north. Some earlier ships went a little too far east, winding up in what is today Australia and New Zealand. While the Dutch were the first to set foot in these lands, there was no interest in colonization once they found the aborigines had little to offer in terms of trade.

Ships eventually reached Indonesia, where spices were finally found. The Dutch weren't the only ones who were there, though: many other European and Asian merchants were there, so competition was tough. In response, the VOC (or East India Company) was established in 1602. This was a very new idea, since trade was normally arranged by the state. The VOC was financed by wealthy business investors interested solely in profit. Many merchants coming to these new countries also intended to colonize and convert the native peoples. This trading company proved to be a huge success, bringing much wealth to the Netherlands. This had an interesting consequence, though: few people actually wanted to work for the East India Company since it was hard and dangerous work. As a result, many of the workers were foreigners. These workers earned a lot of money, but only received six weeks of vacation before they had to set sail again. This results in the term "Lord of Six Weeks", as well as the prostitution boom in Amsterdam.

The Dutch learned very quickly of the rivalries among the locals and used this to their advantage, supporting one group to eliminate another before moving on to a new group. Still, they suffered severe competition from England, leading to several wars and many negative expressions in the English language that still exist today. These wars cost lots of money and the Dutch influence weakened. France took advantage of these wars to invade the Netherlands. England then took advantage of this and occupied many colonies that formerly belonged to the Dutch. It's a rather unfortunate irony, if you think about it.

Some territories remained in Dutch possession...namely Indonesia. The Dutch decided to put a new policy into effect: the cultivation system. The Netherlands made deals with the local upper class. They would respect the authority and power of these upperclassmen, but part of the land had to be used to produce crops that could be sold on the European market (such as tea and coffee). This was very successful, as elites received part of the profit and the Netherlands was able to control a large territory with a small army. The only ones who suffered were the farmers, as lots of pressure was put on them by both the elite and the Dutch. A man by the name of Muttatuli criticized this new system, accusing the Netherlands of being hypocritical. His novel had a major impact, and thus a new system was put into effect: the ethical policy.

This policy was to give back to the farmers by building roads and schools for the natives. This had the unintentional consequence of introducing hundreds of thousands of natives to Western education and ideals. The native Indonesians discovered the ideas of the Enlightenment, Renaissance, and French Revolution...and how much these were contradicted with the cultivation system. The smartest would use Western ideologies to combat the Dutch and turn against the upper class rulers. The Dutch had the possibility of liberating these colonies, but that was hardly an option since they would lose both finance and status as an empire.

World War II changed everything: the Dutch were invaded by Germany, and Indonesia was invaded by Japan. The Japanese presented themselves as liberators in an attempt to win over the population. The Dutch were therefore placed in concentration camps, with the men working as slaves. The Dutch had a difficult time regaining the colonies once the war was over. This was known as the Bersiap Time, when Dutch families were often attacked and persecuted by the Indonesians. Troops were sent and things proceeded quite violently, as almost 250000 would die. This was when the Dutch realized they had to give Indonesia their independence, and did so in 1949.

The Dutch also had colonies in the Caribbean, as they made the West India Company in 1620 after the success of the VOC. Spain was incredibly powerful in the Americas, so the Netherlands focused their attention on places Spain wasn't interested in, such as the north eastern coast and the islands. Plantations were set up in the islands, but they had no access to workers. This resulted in the Dutch being involved in the slave trade. 1863 was the year the Dutch abolished slavery, replacing the former slaves with indentured servants. The main settlement was New Amsterdam in what is now Manhattan, but they pressured by the British to leave. The Dutch were given some British territories in the tropics as compensation.

The multicultural history of the Netherlands had its start in the 1960s with the wish to put new policies into practice. Jumping forward to 1994, the Netherlands now has no conservative parties within its government--an entirely progressive government considered by many as the culmination of the events in the 1960s. Many Europeans had anti-immigration laws, while the Netherlands did not. The Netherlands soon suffered from a crisis centering around this multiculturalism.

The minority groups in Dutch society consist of people with roots in former colonies and guest workers. These guest workers were originally poorer people from southern Europe, but there has been an influx of people from Morocco and Turkey. There weren't many measures taken to facilitate their integration into Dutch society, resulting in "satellite cities". Those from Morocco and Turkey brought a new religion with them: Islam, which would change Dutch society.

The Muslim community grew rapidly due to the tendency to marry within the community and larger family size. Suddenly, there were many problems that brought confrontation of values, an inability to perform certain actions, and even discrimination--all brought on by the beliefs within the Muslim community. Those who criticized or spoke out against this confrontation of values, such as Pim Fortuym and Theo van Gogh, were killed off by radicals in the Muslim community. So then there is this new problem of a tolerant people dealing with integrating a fairly intolerant group of people into their society. There has been progress, though: Rotterdam's current mayor is the first Muslim in government office, and more attempts to bridge the gap between these two communities are being made.